SENTENCED — Jefferson County Prosecutor Jane Hanlin, left, reads a victim impact statement during a sentencing hearing Thursday. Judge Michelle Miller sentenced Paul Voltz, 51, seated at right with his attorney, to seven consecutive terms of life in prison for raping three school-aged children. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — A Toronto resident convicted three weeks ago of sexually abusing three children more than a decade ago was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.

Paul Voltz, 51, had been found guilty June 9 of seven counts of rape, two counts of gross sexual imposition and two counts of pandering obscenities in connection with the crimes, which involved the oral, vaginal and anal rape of children, two boys and a girl, as young as seven.

Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge Judge Michelle Miller handed down seven life sentences, one for each count of rape, and told Voltz, a former teacher, that, since each count represented “a different time, a different victim and a different type” of rape, those seven prison terms must be served consecutively.

She also sentenced Voltz to five years in prison on each gross sexual imposition charge and eight years on each pandering charge, but those will be served concurrently.

Prosecutor Jane Hanlin had lobbied for the rape sentences to be served consecutively, telling Miller the three victims “began serving their life sentences … when they were as young as seven-years-old.”

“It was heart-wrenching to hear what these three young people endured,” she said, adding, “They will never get away from this, no matter what happens to Paul Voltz. Imagine the scars they take with them as they attempt to move forward with their lives.”

Hanlin said none of his three accusers could bear to be in the same room with him again but she read a victim impact statement penned by one of them, who said she’s haunted by the experiences of her youth.

“I still get the feeling that he’s always here with me,” the victim wrote. “He’s here when I see a bald man in my line of vision. He’s in every person that has the shape of his lips. In every man that chews tobacco and in every man that wears strong cologne. I panic when I hear a man clear his throat in the way that Paul does. Sometimes I can’t be touched by my fiance because I can’t get the sight of Paul’s face, his eyes, the feeling of his lips, his hands … (out of my mind). I hate it. It feels like I’m imprisoned in my own body. I shut down when the thought of him comes back and takes over my mind.”

The victim said he’s made her question her faith in God “because how could a man do this to children and go to church every Sunday?”

“How could he read the Bible every night — even the nights that he raped us? How could I be so devoted to God but this man was put in my life to repeatedly rape me? He is the reason that I’m terrified to have children. How could I bring a child into this world when people like him exist? I carry this weight around with me everywhere I go, but I’m looking forward to shedding it, He did the unthinkable to me, but in the end I won.”

Voltz shook his head as he listened to Hanlin read the victim’s impact statement. Minutes later, he faced the victims’ family members who were seated in the gallery and told them “Anybody… anybody … could be standing in my shoes.”

“Anybody could come and say things about you, with no evidence, and you could get convicted,” he said. “It could happen to anybody. Walk in my shoes the last nine months.”

Voltz said there was no physical evidence to support the charges and questioned how the jury could have voted to put him away for life based on what he labeled “lies.”

“My word is as good as theirs,” he insisted, adding, “My friends, my true friends, and my family know I’m innocent of these charges and justice will be served in the end.”

Two of his sisters also appealed to the court, telling Miller that Voltz was “not the monster he’s been made out to be.” One of them said he’d earned academic and athletic awards as a kid, earned his bachelor’s degree, owned his own home, took care of his mother when she got sick.

“We’re not looking for pity or sympathy,” she said. “There are facts that didn’t get out there.”

But earlier, Hanlin had pointed out the defense chose not to bring in character witnesses to avoid potentially damaging information being brought to the jury’s attention.

Afterward, she said she was satisfied, saying life in prison “is the right punishment in this case, both because of what he did to the children and to protect any other children” who might have crossed his path.

Defense Attorney Dennis McNamara, however, reiterated that Voltz’s story “could happen to anybody.”

“I don’t know whether he did or didn’t do it,” he said. “But I’m convinced there’s no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt (he did it).”

McNamara said there’s “stuff to me that doesn’t make much sense,” such as the fact that the three victims didn’t remember being victimized until they were in their 20s or how they could have been drugged and no one have noticed.

Reminded that the jury had believed them, McNamara conceded the three were “compelling and sympathetic.”

“The jury believed them,” he said. “I respect the system … Usually I do. Most of the time I do. This time, I elect not to.”

Voltz has 30 days to appeal.